Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Bar Soap Bonanza

By: Meg


A few months ago, Megan and I attended a Green festival in San Francisco. The two of us were looking for some new green beauty cosmetic companies to try out. We found some really great emerging companies and we visited the tables of a few of our old stand-bys like Dr. Bronner. We came away with some great ideas to green-ify our lives and a bag of samples.
Many of the companies presenting at the festival specialized in all natural Bar soaps.
I have not used a bar soap since....well probably,  since I still had baby teeth. I remember the severe drying effect they had on my skin as a child. I had not really ever considered using bar soaps again but when you put a free sample in my hands, watch out!
That night I pulled out a sliver of soap from a company called Green Girl. They are a new company with some really great moisturizers and baby products. I was eager to try out the soap, which smelled a bit lemony and a bit lavendery. The soap had a small amount of what looked like seeds embedded in it too for exfoliation (I regret not asking what exactly they were). I was so happy with how great my skin felt after using it. It did not feel dry or rough or flaky at all. I also smelled pretty great! After that I couldn't wait to try more bar soap. I'm officially a convert.
I went on Etsy.com which has become a great clean beauty resource lately for me and found some really great bar soaps, which I bought for friends and fam. The bar I bought for Megan was infused with Argan oil and she just raved about how soft it made her skin.
Below I have listed some bar soaps we LOVE with a short description of why we like them and where you can purchase.

Heliotrope San Francisco
www.HeliotropeSF.com
or 1515 Church St.
San Francisco

Fig and Cardemom Bar
Ok both of us took one whiff if this soap at the green fest and could not believe what we were smelling. We just stood at the booth with a bar up to our noses for a good 10 minutes. This scent is ideal for men, in fact, every man on earth should smell like this. I bought a bar for the Boy Friend and ......WOW I have to restrain myself.  This would make a great gift for the guy who has everything.

Green Girl Soap
www.GreenGirlSoap.com

All Soaps
Upon revisiting their website, I realize I have no idea which bar we sampled from this company! However, everything we smelled and tested at their booth was fantastic. All their soaps re made with natural, organic ingredients like olive oil and avocado oil. Their scents are all natural too, no perfumes of course.

Body Time Berkley
www.BodyTime.com
or 1942 Shattuck Avenue
Berkley, Ca

Lavender Eucalyptis Bar
I was given a small chunk of this bar soap to take home from the festival. The combination of lavender and eucalyptis is very refreshing. I think this bar is probably the most moisturizing of all the ones I have used. They have many other wonderful scents too. Body Time does use animal tallow in their soaps, so they are not vegan.

Tokyo Factory
www.Etsy.com/shop/TokyoFactory

All Soaps
This is an Etsy shop run by a soap maker from Japan who now lives in the US. I took notice of her shop when she was donating all the profits from items sold to the Red Cross to benefit the Japan Earthquake Relief. I bought a bunch of bars for my Mom and one for Megan and our Resident Expert Emily. Everyone got different "flavors" but everyone just loved thiem. They look very pretty so they make great gifts and they are ultra moisturizing. The shop has different soap all the time. The inventory fluctuates often so keep checking if you don't see something that strikes your fancy.

Zum Bar
Mint Bar
Sold at many whole health stores and retailers by the OZ.
www.indigowild.com

I use this soap every day. There are so many things I adore about it. It looks pretty, it makes my skin feel great and refreshed, and the smell of this soap is INCREDIBLE (I am tempted to eat it). If you can find this at a store they are sold in huge soap blocks and customers are invited to cut off whatever amount they need. I think that is very conventient. Zum Bar makes a huge array of scents and they all smell great, but the Mint one is just unbelieveable.

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